Chapter 26 - Fluff

Some five minutes later, Jo left the backstage to watch Black Flame of Sin do their setup and sound check. Beer in hand, she wandered near the front of the stage.

After the set which had been successful almost beyond her hopes, despite the bar she had set rather high, and after the whole month of almost too intense preparation, it felt a little like she was not completely there. Like an out-of-the-body experience.

She knew Russ was closer to the door, having seen the whole show, but preferring to stay away from the front. Jo would talk to him in detail just a bit later. But being that he had been there for most of the rehearsals, Jo knew he was definitely digging AVENGER's material. In his words, it could have been recorded already twenty-five years ago, and that had to be taken as a compliment.

Trey was hitting the drums one by one now.

During the show itself, the playing would be ultra-technical and refined. Same for the rest of the musicians. And then Anthony's flawless powerful singing would top everything off.

But it would not have the same drive and violence and force, Jo thought. She certainly wished them good luck, to reach maximal success within their genre. Meanwhile AVENGER would chase its own uncompromising dream.

Jo's mind began to drift into some earlier memories.

Like the first Cyberpriest show with Ian they had managed to play all the way through. And the psychedelic tour van trip away from the city that had followed.

She was startled just a little, as she found the memory repeating live. Ian had sneaked up on her from behind and enclosed her in a warm, soft hug. A bit like in the van back then.

Jo turned to face him.

"Took this long to see it again. Turns out AGENT just wasn't enough," Ian said.

Jo could not exactly follow. "What?"

"Your proper after-show look. The perfect messed up hair. And like you're somewhere else just a little. There's no way up from that," Ian explained, his face basically all smile.

What could Jo even reply to that?

While she still contemplated this, Ian got closer and kissed her, soft at first like was typical for him (fluff metal), but then it was like the musical genre just suddenly changed. Jo felt just a little weak from her knees, and had to remind herself to grip the beer bottle hard, to not drop it.

When it was over, their faces were very close. On the stage, Scott started the bass check, playing a sustained rumbling low note.

"That was speed metal. Now I'll show you thrash," Jo said.

"Hey. Wait. One more thing," Ian interrupted.

He showed his cell phone, on which was their Amazon self-publishing bookshelf page.

NIKKI & DUNCAN MOORE

PRACTICAL LOW-EFFORT GUIDE TO LOVING RELATIONSHIPS

Paperback

LIVE

Jo had almost forgotten. The book. Finished very hastily while writing the AVENGER songs. Published with fake names they had used a long ago while purchasing instruments for the Agent HQ. They had just needed to come up with the last name. The content was just as low-effort as the name suggested. But it was live now, and their brain capacity would be free for something else.

"That's great. Now, here's comes the thrash."

It was a fast, almost violent kiss, and in the middle of it Jo imagined the movie in her head turning black and white and freezing, followed by a series of tour photos from venues of increasing capacity.

But all that actually needed to happen first.